n physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that

describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines,

including aerodynamics (the study of air and other gases in motion)
and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics has a wide range of
applications, including calculating forces and moments on aircraft, determining the mass
flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, predicting weather patterns,
understanding nebulae in interstellar space and modelling fission weapon detonation,
Fluid dynamics offers a systematic structure—which underlies these practical disciplines—
that embraces empirical and semi-empirical laws derived from flow measurement and used
to solve practical problems. The solution to a fluid dynamics problem typically involves the
calculation of various properties of the fluid, such as flow velocity, pressure, density,
and temperature, as functions of space and time.
Before the twentieth century, hydrodynamics was synonymous with fluid dynamics. This is
still reflected in names of some fluid dynamics topics,
like magnetohydrodynamics and hydrodynamic stability, both of which can also be applied
to gases.[1]

Contents

 1Equations
o 1.1Conservation laws
o 1.2Compressible vs incompressible flow
o 1.3Newtonian vs non-Newtonian fluids
o 1.4Inviscid vs viscous vs Stokes flow
o 1.5Steady vs unsteady flow
o 1.6Laminar vs turbulent flow
o 1.7Subsonic vs transonic, supersonic and hypersonic flows
o 1.8Reactive vs non-reactive flows
o 1.9Magnetohydrodynamics
o 1.10Relativistic fluid dynamics
o 1.11Other approximations
 2Terminology
o 2.1Terminology in incompressible fluid dynamics
o 2.2Terminology in compressible fluid dynamics
 3See also
o 3.1Fields of study
o 3.2Mathematical equations and concepts
o 3.3Types of fluid flow
o 3.4Fluid properties
o 3.5Fluid phenomena
o 3.6Applications
o 3.7Fluid dynamics journals
o 3.8Miscellaneous
o 3.9See also
 4References
 5Further reading
 6External links

Equations[edit]
The foundational axioms of fluid dynamics are the conservation laws,
specifically, conservation of mass, conservation of linear momentum, and conservation of
energy (also known as First Law of Thermodynamics). These are based on classical
mechanics and are modified in quantum mechanics and general relativity. They are
expressed using the Reynolds transport theorem.
In addition to the above, fluids are assumed to obey the continuum assumption. Fluids
are composed of molecules that collide with one another and solid objects. However, the
continuum assumption assumes that fluids are continuous, rather than discrete.
Consequently, it is assumed that properties such as density, pressure, temperature, and
flow velocity are well-defined at infinitesimally small points in space and vary continuously
from one point to another. The fact that the fluid is made up of discrete molecules is
ignored.
For fluids that are sufficiently dense to be a continuum, do not contain ionized species, and
have flow velocities small in relation to the speed of light, the momentum equations
for Newtonian fluids are the Navier–Stokes equations—which is a non-linear set
of differential equations that describes the flow of a fluid whose stress depends linearly on
flow velocity gradients and pressure. The unsimplified equations do not have a
general closed-form solution, so they are primarily of use in Computational Fluid Dynamics.
The equations can be simplified in a number of ways, all of which make them easier to
solve. Some of the simplifications allow some simple fluid dynamics problems to be solved
in closed form.[citation needed]
In addition to the mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations,
a thermodynamic equation of state that gives the pressure as a function of other
thermodynamic variables is required to completely describe the problem. An example of
this would be the perfect gas equation of state:

where p is pressure, ρ is density, T the absolute temperature, while Ru is the gas

constant and M is molar mass for a particular gas.

Conservation laws[edit]
Three conservation laws are used to solve fluid dynamics problems, and may be
written in integral or differential form. The conservation laws may be applied to a region
of the flow called a control volume. A control volume is a discrete volume in space
through which fluid is assumed to flow. The integral formulations of the conservation
laws are used to describe the change of mass, momentum, or energy within the control
volume. Differential formulations of the conservation laws apply Stokes' theorem to
yield an expression which may be interpreted as the integral form of the law applied to
an infinitesimally small volume (at a point) within the flow.

 Mass continuity (conservation of mass): The rate of change of fluid mass inside a
control volume must be equal to the net rate of fluid flow into the volume.
Physically, this statement requires that mass is neither created nor destroyed in the
control volume,[2] and can be translated into the integral form of the continuity
equation:

Above, is the fluid density, u is the flow velocity vector, and t is time. The left-
hand side of the above expression is the rate of increase of mass within the volume
and contains a triple integral over the control volume, whereas the right-hand side
contains an integration over the surface of the control volume of mass convected
into the system. Mass flow into the system is accounted as positive, and since the
normal vector to the surface is opposite the sense of flow into the system the term
is negated. The differential form of the continuity equation is, by the divergence
theorem:

 Conservation of momentum: Newton's second law of motion applied to

a control volume, is a statement that any change in momentum of the
fluid within that control volume will be due to the net flow of momentum
into the volume and the action of external forces acting on the fluid
within the volume.

In the above integral formulation of this equation, the term on the left is the net
change of momentum within the volume. The first term on the right is the net rate at
which momentum is convected into the volume. The second term on the right is the
force due to pressure on the volume's surfaces. The first two terms on the right are
negated since momentum entering the system is accounted as positive, and the

normal is opposite the direction of the velocity and pressure forces. The third
term on the right is the net acceleration of the mass within the volume due to
any body forces (here represented by fbody). Surface forces, such as viscous forces,

are represented by , the net force due to shear forces acting on the volume
surface. The momentum balance can also be written for a moving control volume.[3]
The following is the differential form of the momentum conservation equation. Here,
the volume is reduced to an infinitesimally small point, and both surface and body
forces are accounted for in one total force, F. For example, F may be expanded into
an expression for the frictional and gravitational forces acting at a point in a flow.

In aerodynamics, air is assumed to be a Newtonian fluid, which posits a linear

relationship between the shear stress (due to internal friction forces) and the rate of
strain of the fluid. The equation above is a vector equation in a three-dimensional
flow, but it can be expressed as three scalar equations in three coordinate
directions. The conservation of momentum equations for the compressible, viscous
flow case are called the Navier–Stokes equations.[2]

 Conservation of energy: Although energy can be

converted from one form to another, the
total energy in a closed system remains constant.